Black Women Internationalists: Thelma Dale Perkins, Anti-imperialist Solidarities, and the Rising Global South, 1945–75

Following World War II, a wave of women’s international activism emerged among both left-leaning peace and more mainstream women’s organizations. The paper explores this moment and its influence on African American women’s activism, by tracking the travel and activism of seasoned leftist Thelma Dale Perkins, who had led the National Negro Congress, was active in American Women for Peace and served as a representative at the founding of the Women’s International Democratic Federation in 1945. Dale Perkins’ work took her from the US to Europe in the early postwar period and later to the Soviet Union. This paper charts the shifting context of her activism as she linked the decolonizing Global South and anti-imperialist solidarity networks to her transnational vision of the US black freedom struggle.